Category: Life in General

When I was a kid, I remember going to Hills, which was a K-mart/Walmart type place. I remember going when they were on the verge of closing, and they were having their going out of business sale. We walked through the store, it was a wreck. Items were just left everywhere. We walked through the toy aisle, and I started looking at all the G.I. Joe toys. I picked out a helicopter. It was awesome… but I digress.

The location saw a lot of stores come and go through the years. After Hills closed, Venture moved in. It didn’t last too long. My first job was in a K-mart at that spot. It’s closed. I’m fairly certain at least two other stores have been in that location. Sometimes, things just don’t last.

I’ve been toying with the idea of revamping this blog for a while now. As I started working on it, I realized that it might be time to start something new. And so, I did.

I write this post a couple days after the tragic shooting in Las Vegas. I don’t think all the details are out yet, nor do I know what is true and what is speculation at this point, but here’s something we know: more than 50 people are dead, and hundreds are injured, because of the actions of one person. And the debate flares back up:

“We need stricter gun laws!”

“What about my Second Amendment rights?”

“It’s not a gun problem; it’s a heart problem.”

“You can’t stop people from hating.”

“If somebody has it in their heart to kill, then that’s what they are going to do.”

“9/11 happened because of box cutters.”

“Cars kill more people a day than guns.”

“The NRA has bought and paid for Congress; nothing is going to change.”

“Changing gun laws is not going to prevent criminals from doing bad things; it only prevents law-abiding citizens from being able to protect themselves.”

“It’s a mental health issue.”

And so on, and so on, and so on. Wash, rinse, repeat when the next tragedy occurs.

I’ve said before that I don’t really have a particular political leaning, so this isn’t coming from somebody with a conservative/liberal ax to grind. But the simple truth of the matter, as far as I see it, is that something needs to be done. Clearly, the do-nothing approach hasn’t worked thus far.

Of course, there’s the typical responses: the Oklahoma City bombing happened with fertilizer; 9/11 happened with box cutters; people can use a car to do the same thing. But, do you know what those responses don’t tell you?

The fertilizer that was used in the OKC bombing is heavily regulated now. In fact, there is the Ammonium Nitrate Security Program that will essentially have persons who buy/sell the chemical with a background check against the Terror Screening Database.

We did take some drastic security measures after 9/11. Do you know why it takes so long to go through security at the airport now? Because security screenings are being taken much more seriously than ever before. Some idiot tried to sneak a bomb in his shoe, and now we all have to take our shoes off for these screenings. Do you know how annoyed I get about having to take my shoes and belt off every time I go to the airport? And I don’t even go to the airport all that often!

And the car analogy? We actually do regulate who can drive cars – it’s call a driver’s license. I don’t even know what the process is now, but I know it’s a lot more extensive than when I got my license twenty years ago. We have people register their vehicles with the government already. Sure, you can buy one at a car show, but you still have to go get a title and register at the BMV. You can get a ticket and have your license taken away if you abuse your right/privilege to operate your vehicle in a responsible way. Oh, yeah, and you have to buy insurance too if you want to operate your vehicle. Do we regulate our guns as much as we regulate our cars?

So, yes, things have changed in response to tragedies. And for all the talk of how it “wouldn’t do any good” to change the law, how would we know unless things changed? For the people who were all in favor of the Second Amendment, do you want to tell me where they were when this shooting was taking place? I mean, let’s face it, it was a country music festival. Stereotypes are going to dictate that there was somebody with a concealed carry permit. Of course, I’m not up on Nevada law, so maybe they can’t in Nevada. But, let’s say there was somebody there with a handgun. Were they really going to be able to take out a shooter from that distance? Probably not. This isn’t Call of Duty where you can miraculously throw your tomahawk across the map to take out the enemy (I know, dated reference, but it works in my head).

The truth of the matter is that it’s not a single-issue problem – and that’s the problem. We want a simple, easy solution. We set up these false dichotomies about it being a “heart issue vs. a mental health issue vs. a gun issue” and we don’t do anything about any of these issues apart from argue with some acquaintances and engage in meme activism on Facebook for the next week or so. Who knows… maybe that’s all I’m doing right now. Writing to get something off my mind.

The fact of the matter is that this was a terrible, senseless act of violence. Lives will be forever changed. Loved ones gone. Safety and security forever in doubt. And not to mention the serious PTSD that people are going to have to deal with for the rest of their life. For what? Attending a concert? But, hey, Second Amendment, right? Let’s bring that up at the funeral for one of these people whose right to live was taken away from them that night in Las Vegas.

And, no, you can’t stop somebody who has his mind set on doing something like this, but you sure as heck can try. You certainly can make it more difficult on him/her… let’s face it, it’s usually a him.

I was grilling some hot dogs a couple weeks ago. I dropped one of them on the ground. You know what I didn’t do? I didn’t say, “Well, it’s a gravity thing, there’s nothing I can do about it.” I didn’t just throw my hands in the air and walk away. I took it upon myself to do a better job paying attention to and regulating how I got the rest of the hot dogs off the grill. And you know what? One of these days, I’m going to teach my kids how to use the grill. There will be times that they mess up, and those times will be good teaching moments for them to learn how do go about it a better way. I realize that’s a terrible analogy, but the point holds. I did something about it. I learned from the past, and adjusted how I did things moving forward. And I plan on teaching my kids the same thing.

No, I don’t think the government should put together raids to confiscate all the guns that private citizens own. I just think that we ought to do at least a half decent job tracking what’s out there in the first place. Yes, there are people who drive without a license. Yes, there are people who drive with expired/forged/stolen plates. No, we can’t end it entirely. But we can try. And as far as I’m concerned trying is a much better option than burying our head in the sand once again.

We went to a birthday party on Saturday for one of Hannah’s NICU friends, Theo. At one point, Theo’s dad (Kyle) asked me how different 36 was from 25. Having just turned 36 at the end of last month, I said something along the lines of feeling sore and tired all the time, but it’s not that much different. A couple hours later – as we were headed home – his question came back into my mind, and I realized something. He wasn’t asking about me being 36, he was asking about the difference between a 36-weeker (Henry) and a 25-weeker (Hannah).

So, first off, sorry, Kyle, I’m an idiot.

Secondly, maybe my response was a decent answer after all. With everything that we went through for Hannah, it was constant stress and worry for the first several weeks. There came a point when the alarms weren’t alarming because we knew what they meant. But for a while, we didn’t know if we would be bring our little girl home. That’s a difficult thing to live with day in, day out. But we did. We managed. We coped. And, eventually, we were able to bring our amazing girl home.

Once Henry started breathing (which, admittedly, took longer than it should have), I was never really worried about him. Something inside me knew that he was going to be just fine. Even when he went back to the hospital with RSV, I felt like he was going to get through it. The level of worry that I had with Henry doesn’t even show up on the radar compared to what we had with Hannah.

Yes, Henry was early and spent some time in the NICU, but for some reason, it was different. Maybe it’s because we knew the staff at Community North. Maybe it’s because he was in a lot better shape from the beginning. Maybe we just learned a lot more than we thought the first time around.

The difference between 36 and 25? It’s massive. Those 11 weeks are so important. To be honest, I don’t think of Henry as a preemie. He’s just a little guy that had a bit of a rough start, but who is thriving now. Both of them are, in fact. If you didn’t know that Hannah was a 25-weeker, you wouldn’t know. She is a spitfire whose going to cause us some headaches, but she is also the most amazing little girl we’ve ever met. I have a feeling that she’s going to have a lot of influence on her little brother as well, so we better get prepared for it!

I’ve been stewing on this for a while now. Obviously… The election was almost two weekss ago. As the results slowly came in, and the “experts” started getting more and more befuddled, it became clear: the next President of the United States was going to be Donald Trump – like it or not. In the aftermath, a lot of thoughts have come to my mind…

I could write a “Dear Donald” open letter, and say, “Hey, don’t screw up. You won the election, but the reality show is over. Get serious. Get to work. And stop with the vitriol if you really want to make America great again – whatever you think that means.”

I could write a similarly themed “Dear Hillary” letter, and say, “Hey, you screwed up. You referred to people as ‘deplorable’. You ignored what was going on. Failed to address concerns for some people that were very serious. And took it all for granted.”

I could talk about what went right, what went wrong, why this was one of the nastiest campaign seasons that I can remember. I mean… wow.

I could talk about my experience as a person who really followed the political process for the very first time – talking about my journey from deciding to vote, registering, voting in the primary, and voting in the general election. It was interesting, and nauseating.

I could talk about the aftermath of the election: protests, voting number, favorability, factors that I think affected the way things went down

I could talk about all of these things, but I don’t think I could do it in a coherent way. I don’t think a series of posts really fits how I’ve gone about blogging to this point either – especially since I, at best, write once a week (though I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus the last several weeks).

So, instead, I thought, I could just say a little about a lot of things that have been going through my head as we zoom past the election and into the holiday season. So, here goes…

No-Win Situation. I made no secret that I was not a fan of Donald Trump from the beginning. Even early in the primaries, I didn’t think he had a shot and that it was all just to get his name, his “brand” out there in front of people. I’ve often said that he had the biggest ego on television, and I used to sit in the room while Katie watched America’s Next Top Model with Tyra Banks. I haven’t like him since about the second season of The Apprentice. That being said, I wasn’t a big fan of Hillary either. When there’s that must dust kicking up around a person, you know they’ve been playing in the dirt. She must be a capable person because she has worked at high levels in the government. I realized that one of them was going to win. I didn’t really like the prospect of it. And I also made it no secret that I was voting third party… and that I was voting for the first time. I stayed true to my word, and I voted for Johnson – even though I knew he had no chance, especially once he was denied the ability to participate in the debates. Regardless, I voted, and I didn’t feel like I need to take a shower afterwards to get the icky feeling off of me.

Unfavorable. In polls (which apparently can’t be trusted too much), neither candidate was really looked upon too favorably. Trump had an unfavorability rating anywhere between 52-60%, depending on the source. Clinton was 51-57%. In other words, a majority of the people didn’t like either candidate. I don’t know if that has ever happened before. What does it mean? It tells me that there were a lot of people that didn’t like who they were voting for, but did it anyway to keep the other one from winning. Even people that voted for Trump don’t really like him; they just really, really didn’t like Hillary.

Blaming White Evangelical Christians. In the post-election daze (see what I did there?), I have seen some people who are very angry with “white evangelical Christians” for putting the votes in favor of our new President-elect. It’s been a while, but I feel like I remember seeing that 80% of white evangelicals punched the Trump ticket. But, here’s the thought that has been going through my head: if white evangelicals really have such an influence, why is it that on any given Sunday 80% of America is anywhere but church? I written about this before, but America is not a “Christian” nation, as much as people like to think that it is. I wish the Church had the influence that people seem to think it does. But I can tell you, being somebody what works pretty closely with the Church, it doesn’t have the influence that has been attributed to it in the last couple of weeks.

Insurance Rate Hikes. Do you know what I think led to more people shying away from Hillary on election day? The news that was coming out about insurance rates going through the roof for some people. My opinion: that was more damaging to the Democrats than anything else during this entire election season. People were seeing astronomical hikes in their insurance rates, and the immediate blame was placed on “Obamacare”. Guess what – there’s a guy running who has said he will repeal it as soon as he can. People vote according to what they think is best for them. If they see their expenses going up because of something that one party has enacted, they are going to vote against that party. Keep that in mind in four years if something similar happens.

Protests. Why? I understand that there are a lot of people who don’t like the election results. I understand that there are people who have legitimate concerns about a Trump presidency, especially given his rhetoric on the campaign trail. But destroying property, fighting with the police, disrupting traffic – none of that is going to change the past. The results of the election are what they are. We can get upset about it, but we can’t change it. And let me say this: people had a chance to reject Trump as president already – it’s called voting. They didn’t do it. And – as a side note – anybody who didn’t vote has no business being involved in the protests either. Do you know what is more effective than a protest? Involvement. If you don’t like it, get involved.

Participation Trophies. I’ve seen people, in talking about the protesters, make comments like – “This is what happens when you give out participation trophies,” and “Millenials just want everything handed to them.” No. Stop it. You know who wanted participation trophies? The trophy companies. Their sales went up when they realized they could make participation trophies because the majority of the kids playing weren’t going to win the championship. You know who else wanted participation trophies? The adults running the leagues that bought the stupid things in the first place and were handing them out to the kids that didn’t ask for them. I played on some pretty bad Little League teams. I got participation trophies. You know what I wanted? I wanted the first-place trophy. Kids who got participation trophies weren’t asking for them; the trophies were handed to them. Several years ago, I went through my old trophies. Do you know which ones I didn’t keep? The participation ones.

Meme Activists. Can we stop with the memes containing clearly biased, and mostly inaccurate, “facts” – also known as opinions? You know how I said that the protests weren’t going to do anything? Your Facebook memes are going to do less. Can we stop sharing those stupid things so people’s timelines get flooded with so much crap that they can’t see the pictures I’m posting of my adorable daughter?

Phew! Okay, that’s a lot of really random things.

Look, I’m not saying I’m an authority on the subject. I’m even willing to say that I might be wrong on some of this. But, this is where I am right now. The most important thing that we need to be able to do in this post-election hangover that we are facing is remember to be people who care about other people – regardless of their political ideology. There was once a time when people came together to accomplish things because they believed in something greater than themselves. I hope we haven’t lost sight of those times.

There is a species of the mayfly, the Dolania americana, that has the shortest lifespan of any creature. The female will deposit her eggs and die within five minutes of emergence. It is believed to be the shortest adult lifespan of any insect. Five minutes is not a lot of time. It has taken me longer than five minutes just to write this paragraph. (In fairness, my daughter is in the office today, so… anything is going to take longer than five minutes this morning.)

We think of five minutes as almost a throw-away time. You need to waste five minutes? No problem. Just check Twitter or Facebook, and that will eat up five minutes in a heartbeat. Yet, for the Dolania americana, five minutes is a lifetime. It’s all about perspective, isn’t it?

The life expectancy for a person in the United States is 78.74 (at least, that’s what Google told me). How many different five minute segments do we have in life? Well, according to… math… that over 8 million five minute segments that one person can expect. Again, for us, five minutes isn’t that big of a deal… or is it? Ask anybody that has lost a loved one – five more minutes would make a difference. For some, five more minutes is all they would ask for.

Five minutes seems like a small, insignificant period of time… until it’s not.

What are you afraid of? People are afraid of many different things; some seem to be afraid of nothing, others… of everything. In no particular order, some of the more common fears that people have: public speaking, crowds, spiders/snakes, clowns, heights.

For me in particular, I have a few years as well. I know, I know, that may come as a shock to most people who think I’m completely fearless. In a rare moment of self-revelation, what I want to do right now is share a couple of my fears with you, how they have affected me as a pastor, and what I’m doing about it.

I used to be a major perfectionist. I would work and work and work to make sure that everything was perfect. I was unhappy with myself for missing a few questions on a quiz or test. I once pulled an all-nighter in college to finish a rough draft, and then, when I got a copy back from the professor, I saw that he would give me an A- if that was the final draft of the paper. I went to his office and argued with him that it was a terribly incomplete paper and there was a lot more left to do on it. He said, “So do it.”

Now, being a perfectionist is not always a bad thing. It can cause me to be more intentional about thinking through the details of projects. I can be very thorough, or, surprisingly, it can cause the complete opposite to happen. I can become so overwhelmed by trying to get all the details in place that I never get around to actually doing the thing that needs to be done. It’s called paralysis by analysis, and it’s a very real thing.

You see, being a recovering perfectionist has given me a fear of failure. I don’t like failing. I went 0-4 in softball last night and was really mad at myself. It a rec league softball game. It’s sole purpose is for me to have fun, get to know some people better and get some exercise. At the end of the year, whatever happens in this league will not affect my life whatsoever, and yet, I focus on the “failure” of going 0-4.

As a pastor, failure is a very real and ever-present reality… depending on what you define as a failure. I think part of the struggles that I have had in ministry is that I think not being able to implement something or having something not work would be a failure in my own eyes. And I don’t want to fail. So, I get caught up in the details and experience the dreaded analysis paralysis.

But, lately, I’ve been thinking about an even bigger fear – irrelevance. Here’s what I mean by that – not that I need to the be the cool, hip pastor in town (let’s face it, that’s not going to happen), but that, when I look back at the end of my days, I don’t want to think that I have just wasted my life, pursuing meaningless things. It’s really easy to get caught up in the weekly tasks and lose sight of the bigger picture. It’s also easy to get so caught up in the big picture that you never notice the little things that you’ve accomplished along the way. I don’t want to look back with regret, saying, “I wish I had…” I want to make a difference in people’s lives for the glory of God.

In the last month, I’ve started being more intentional about my development as a leader. I’ve always been interested in reading and listening on leadership, but putting it into action has been a whole different enchilada. So, I’m seeing a counselor to remove some of the mental roadblocks that I’ve put up through the years. I’m meeting with a coach to help me with specific things relating to ministry. And I’m trying to be more intentional about getting together with ministry peers to talk about ministry on a level that you just can’t with anybody else.

And I’m reminded of the words in Joshua 1. Joshua was selected to lead the Israelites after the death of Moses. How do you follow Moses?!? I imagine it was a daunting task. And then he hears these words:

[5] No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. [6] Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. [7] Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. [8] This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. [9] Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:5-9 ESV)

Be strong and courageous. Three times, God says this to Joshua. And there is a promise, that as long as they stay focused on God, they will be successful. God is with them wherever they go, just stay focused on the Word of the Lord. And the Israelites prove God’s word to be true. As long as they rely on Him, things go well. It’s when they don’t that things start going down the drain.

And so, let those words encourage you today as well. Be strong and courageous for God is with us.

One of the great joys of having a little one is spending time at the sink washing bottles. Has anybody come up with a sarcasm font yet? I feel like it should be comic sans. Yes, comic sans for sarcasm! Anyhoo…

I still wash Hannah’s bottles by hand. We put them in the dishwasher once, but didn’t really like how they came out, and so, we’ve been washing them by hand ever since. Maybe that says more about my psyche than I should let on, but it is what it is.

As I was washing them the other night, something struck me – call it inspiration, boredom because I was standing at the sink washing bottles, whatever. The bottles that were rinsed after they were used were a LOT easier to clean than those that weren’t. I know, no-brainer, right? Anybody that has “found” a bottle or sippy cup of milk after a couple of days could tell you the same thing. But, then, I made the logical leap –

PREPARATION IS MORE BENEFICIAL THAN PERSPIRATION

Sure, I can work extra hard in the moment to wash the bottles OR I can do a little work ahead of time and ease the stress (and smell) of the need for a deeper cleaning. It’s like that with so many things, isn’t it?

We can avoid cleaning the house until people are coming over OR we can spend 20 minutes doing a little every day.

We can wait until the last day to start working on our annual reports OR we can keep good records over the course of the year.

We can write a 20,000 word paper by pulling an all-nighter OR we can write 1,000 words each day for three weeks.

You see where I’m going with this, right? Preparation is so important, but it is often at the bottom of our list. So, how can we prepare better?

Monthly, weekly, daily planning – Do you have a calendar? Of course you do. Everybody has a calendar. Whether it is paper and small enough to carry with you or the one that came on your smartphone, we all have access to a calendar. Having a calendar is not the issue. Using it is. So, do you want to prepare better? USE YOUR CALENDAR! Calendars are awesome because they can give you a quick glance at your schedule, whether it is for the day, week, month, or even year. Using the calendar helps get things off our minds (ever had the nagging feeling that you forgot what you forgot, but know that you did forget something?), helps us block out our time (it’s hard to double book when you already know that you have something going on – not impossible, but more difficult) and helps, you guessed it, prepare us for upcoming events.

Write it down – On thing that has helped me immensely is having a To Do list. It helps me get things done because it keeps the things that need getting done right in front of me. Right now, I am using Wunderlist. It took a little bit of time, but I have set up a recurring weekly To Do list. Some weeks, I don’t need to do something on the list – that’s fine, I just check it off like it is already done. There are many sounds much sweeter than the *ding* that comes alongside checking off an item in Wunderlist, but it’s a pretty sweet sound itself; the sound of victory!

Set big goals, as well as small ones – Here is where I struggle the most. But, by setting big goals, and then backing it into segments of little goals, we can better prepare ourselves to succeeding in the bigger things.

Here’s the thing: all of these suggestions (and I’m sure there are more you could add to the list) take some time. Preparation always takes time on the front end. There’s no way around it. Actually, the way around it is to not prepare, and constantly be dealing with the stress of being unprepared – that doesn’t seem like a viable alternative to me.

Several coaches are credited with saying something along these lines (Bear Bryant and Vince Lombardi among them), but in Indiana, you have to go with Bobby Knight:

The key is not the will to win… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.

Games are not won on the floor, in the field, on the diamond. Games are won in the meeting room, in the gym, on the practice field. You practice how you play. Some athletes may disagree with me here. Great ones, even the good ones, and their coaches, will not. Ultimately, they do have to go out on the floor, field or diamond to win the game, but if they go out there with the confidence that comes from solid preparation, they already have the upper hand.

Washing bottles may be a chore, but rinsing them beforehand makes it less so.

As I sit in bed working on this post that I’ll probably put up in a few days, I’m tired. I’m worn out. I’m exhausted. And it feels great. It’s a good tired.

One of the things that gets emphasized a lot for pastors is the importance of self-care. Take your days off. Take your vacation. Being in ministry is one of those jobs that people expect you to be available 24/7. Because a family crisis, a medical emergency, an untimely death – these things don’t tend to happen in the 9 to 5. Because pastors work with people who often have full time jobs during the week, evening activities are a regular part of the schedule. So, it’s important to relax, unplug, get away. And, I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t always do a good job of it.

The last few days that we spent in St. Louis were the first time that I’ve been able to get away for more than a day in nearly two years. I had a vacation scheduled last April, but, unfortunately, two people connected to my congregation passed away and the trip was cancelled. Turns out it was a good thing. A week later, Katie was put on hospitalized bed rest. Who knows what would have happened while she was attending this conference in Atlanta, which was the reason for us going out of town in the first place.

Last summer was rough. After Hannah was born, we spent the next 117 days going up to the NICU (60 miles each day) before we got to bring her home. The stress of the NICU was described as a type of PTSD by the counselor that worked the floor, and Hannah actually did very well during her time there. Adjusting to life with a newborn was an adventure, but after a few months of averaging about 5.5 hours of interrupted sleep, it became about survival more than anything else.

When the new year hit, and Hannah was more consistently sleeping through the night, I finally felt like I was starting to catch up on sleep. I was still tired… a lot… but I felt like a fog was being lifted. I was starting to get some energy back, but I still didn’t really take any time off. We were blessed to be able to go down to Brown County for a couple of days at the beginning of June, but two of the four days were my regular days off anyway. So, as nice as it was (not to mention the renewal for my enjoyment of fishing!), it wasn’t as refreshing as I hoped it would be.

But, finally, last week, I took some real time off. We went to St. Louis on Wednesday, including Star Wars Night at Busch Stadium. Hannah got to see her first live MLB game in the stadium. She did great, but it was hot and humid! The Cardinals came away with a victory in Game 2 of a doubleheader. We crammed ourselves into a tram and went up the Arch. But, mostly, we just spent time together as a family with no pressures, no work, no need to rush any where.

We got home on Friday, and I was able to play softball (going 3-3 in a 13-3 victory, I think I finally snapped out of my slump!) Afterwards, we were invited to pizza with some great people. When we finally got home I realized something. I was tired. But I felt good. I was tired, but rested. I was tired, but it was a good tired.

One of the things I enjoy doing, but don’t do nearly enough, is hiking. There’s just something about going for a walk in the woods. It’s peaceful. It can be quite a workout. It’s just fun to do. Twenty years and 100 pounds ago, I would look for the trails on the map that were marked “very rugged” and challenge myself to take them. It was exhausting, but it was always a good time.

I remember one time I went to Turkey Run State Park with some friends. We went after the “very rugged” trail that goes through a place called “Boulder Canyon”. It is not misnamed. That section of the park is basically a collection of big rocks. Coming out of the canyon can be pretty tricky. As you can imagine – because it’s a canyon – you basically have to climb out of the canyon. And this particular canyon is made up of – you guessed it – large rocks. There is no clearly defined trail on the way up and out – at least there wasn’t back then, things may have changed since. At one point, on our way out, we began to wonder if we were even on the trail at all.

Life as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a lot like that at times. There are times when the trail is difficult. You are trying your best to follow Jesus, but you aren’t even sure if you are going the right way. It can be exhausting, physically demanding, draining. There may be times when you consider that it might just be easier to go back the way you came. It may not be much better terrain, but at least you know you could do it.

And that’s the choice you have – go forward or go back.

When we went hiking, we had a map with us. It helped instill at least a little bit of confidence that we were moving in the right direction, even though we couldn’t necessarily see the trail that we were on. But, we trusted in the map, and kept moving forward. You know what? We eventually made it out of Boulder Canyon, and back to our car, and back home. We didn’t give up. We didn’t sit still. We kept moving.

So, let me encourage you today. When it comes to your spiritual life, keep moving. Even when the road ahead looks scary. Even when you aren’t really sure. Keeping following Jesus. Trust your guide to take you where you need to be.

Before the Indiana Primary in the spring, I had never voted. I’ve been eligible to vote since 1999, and have not done it. Worse than that, I had never even registered to vote. The simple truth is that I just didn’t care enough to do so. I have been one who believes that my vote didn’t really matter all that much in a sea of votes, so why bother taking the time to do it in the first place. I never really paid much attention to politics, so, in some sense, I felt like it was probably better for me to not vote than to vote ignorantly… not that it has stopped other people. Well, that changed this year.

I don’t know if it was must disgust at the leading candidates for each party or something else that prompted me. I remember talking with a couple of friends a few months ago, and I said, “Guys, it’s really bad this year. So bad that I actually registered to vote.” And I was serious.

Now, the attention is being turned to November, with it shaping up to be a Trump v. Clinton circus, with one pandering to the lowest common denominator and the other recently being called by the FBI “reckless” when it comes to sensitive information on national security. But, as people will tell you, those are your choices – a rock and a hard place. Vote for one or against the other, it doesn’t matter.

However, the simple truth is that they will not be the only ones on the ballot when November rolls around. There will be other candidates who will not be running under the banners of the Democrat or Republican parties. Most people won’t think twice about these candidates because they stand outside the established system, and it is rare that a third party candidate even makes a dent in the headlines. And, usually, when they do, the political commentators are simply saying that the candidate is going to pull votes away from one party or another.

More likely than not, it will be one of the major party candidates that wins on election day. Unfortunately, that’s just the way our political system is set up. If you aren’t backed by one of the heavy hitters, you are going to have a much more difficult time getting elected to any office for the most part. But one of the things that I have heard regarding third party candidates is that we shouldn’t “waste our vote” on them because it just pulls support away from one of the big fish.

I have to tell you, it bothers me that somebody would say that. For years, I have chosen to abstain from voting because I have felt like it would make a difference. I finally decide to do it, only to hear people say, “Don’t waste your vote on somebody that isn’t part of the establishment.” We’ve been voting for establishment candidates for quite some time. How’s that been working out?

The very reason I registered to vote is because I wanted to be involved and make my voice heard over my extreme displeasure for the frontrunners of each party. Don’t tell me that it is a waste to use my vote on somebody that isn’t part of our bipolar party system. (And, yes, I used bipolar on purpose there.) It is not a waste. Will that person win? Probably not. I realize how our system is set up. That doesn’t matter. That does not influence my vote. If my convictions push me towards a particular candidate, then that is the person that will get my vote. I see no other reason to vote.

I’m not a fan of Clinton or Trump. One of them will probably win. And it will be historic. Our next president will most likely either be the first female to hold the office, or the first Oompa Loompa overlord person with absolutely no political experience or social filter to hold the office. I’m not voting for either one, and it’s not a waste. It’s an expression of my right as an American citizen.